“Can we do this somewhere in the garden? I think it would be so cool to wander through the forest and just find a bunch of Buddha heads everywhere,” Kitty suggested.
Oliver chuckled to himself, trying to imagine how Victoria Young might react to the sight of dozens of Buddhas scattered around Tyersall Park. Still, Kitty’s idea wasn’t half bad. Maybe the way to really launch Kitty into the social stratosphere would be to style her as Singapore’s answer to Peggy Guggenheim, and have the grounds of Tyersall Park become a venue for contemporary art like Storm King in New York or the Chinati Foundation in Marfa. They could have the world’s greatest artists in residence to create site-specific installations. Christo could wrap the entire house in silver fabric, James Turrell could create a light projection in the conservatory, and maybe Ai Weiwei could do something controversial with the lily pond.
In the midst of his reverie, there was a sudden flurry of activity as Axel Vervoordt entered the room, impeccably dressed in a gray suit with a black turtleneck, and surrounded by a monastic entourage of assistants. “Oliver T’sien, what a pleasure to see you again!” the legendary antiquarian said.
“Axel, the pleasure is all mine. May I introduce Mrs. Jack Bing.”
“Welcome to Kanaal,” Axel said, giving Kitty a courtly bow.
“Thank you. Axel, I am in awe of your creations! I’ve never seen anything quite like this before, and I feel like I just want to move in here right now,” Kitty effused.
“Thank you. Mrs. Bing, if you enjoy what you see here, perhaps I can invite you to visit me at my private residence Kasteel van’s-Gravenwezel while you are with us in Antwerp.”
“You won’t want to miss this, Kitty. Kasteel van’s-Gravenwezel is one of the most beautiful castles in the world,” Oliver explained.
Kitty batted her eyelashes at Axel. “I’d love to!”
“If I had known earlier that the two of you were coming today, I would have invited you to lunch. Her Majesty the Queen honored us with her presence today, and she brought along a most delightful couple.”
“I hope you had a lovely time,” Oliver said.
“We did, we did. This young couple have just acquired the most magnificent property in Singapour. It is apparently the largest private estate on the island.”
Kitty’s face went pale.
Axel continued. “Wait a minute—it completely escaped my mind. You’re from Singapour, aren’t you, Oliver?”
“Indeed I am,” Oliver said, forcing a smile.
“Have you heard of this property? Apparently it’s quite an architectural folly—a mixture of styles and periods, but set on sixty-four acres. Tivoli Park, I think it is called.” Axel cocked his head.
Kitty calmly walked out onto the balcony of the showroom and could be seen jabbing her iPhone screen frantically.
“Actually, I believe you mean Tyersall Park,” Oliver corrected him.
“Yes, that’s the place! Apparently, the lady’s father has given her the property as a wedding present, and she wants me to help her with the redo. It will be quite the commission.”
Oliver looked out the window, where Kitty was screaming in Mandarin and gesticulating wildly into her phone. “I know you never discuss your clients, but I’m going to guess that the couple were an English lord and his Chinese wife?”
Axel smiled. “Nothing escapes you, does it? I haven’t attempted anything on this scale before in Asia, and I do believe I’m going to be calling on you for some help.”
“Congratulations, Axel. It would be a pleasure,” Oliver managed to utter as he felt like he was going to throw up.
“Now, what can I do for you and Mrs. Bing?”
Oliver watched Kitty fling her cell phone off the balcony into the canal far below. “Oh we were just in the neighborhood. I’m about to take her to meet Dries at Het Modepaleis, so I figured we should stop by.”
···
“He said Colette was a new woman. That she had transformed her life and he was proud of her for wanting to do something good in the world. That’s why she needed a proper house in Singapore. How gullible can you be?” Kitty cried.
“Yes, let it out. Let it all out,” a soothing voice above her said.
“He said that Colette had made a secret trip to see him in Shanghai. She had prostrated herself at his feet and begged for his forgiveness. Can you fucking believe it?” Kitty was lying on the massage table, her head in the face cradle, as her massage therapist Elenya placed a row of hot stones along her spine.
“Good, good. As I place this stone on your lower back, I want you to really feel it burn into your second chakra, and I want you to go deeper into your anger and release it,” Elenya encouraged.
“He said, ‘Do not make me choose between you and my daughter, because you will lose. I only have one daughter, and I can always get another wife.’ I hate him I hate him I hate him!” Kitty screamed, tears flowing freely and dripping on the tatami-matted floor.
Suddenly the floor trembled violently, and a couple of the stones rolled off her back onto the side of the table. Oliver, sitting in an armchair next to the massage table, pulled his seat belt tighter.
“That wasn’t turbulence, Kitty. That was your anger releasing into the universe. How does it feel?” Elenya asked, as she began to rub Kitty’s feet with a steaming hot towel.
“It feels fucking great! I want to tell the pilots to steer this plane and crash it right into his fucking face!” Kitty screamed again, before breaking into loud heaving sobs.
Oliver sighed as he looked out the window of the spa on the second floor of Kitty’s Boeing 747-81 VIP. They were over the English Channel now, and soon they would be landing in London. “I don’t know if a quick revenge is the answer, Kitty. I think you need to be playing a long game here. Look at the life Jack has given you. You’ve got three airplanes at your disposal, wonderful Elenya here to give you hot-stone massage treatments when you need it most, and all your other beautiful homes around the world. And let’s not forget about Harvard. You’ve given Jack a son, and as he grows up, he will begin to eclipse Colette in importance. Kitty, do you know the story of the Empress Dowager Cixi?”
“She was the old lady that died in the opening scene of that Last Emperor movie, wasn’t she?” Kitty said in a quiet voice.
“Yes, the Empress Dowager Cixi was one of the concubines of Emperor Xianfeng, and after he died she launched a palace coup and became the true force of power in China. Cixi had a greater impact than possibly any other emperor in the country’s history—she transformed it from a medieval empire into a modern nation, opened the country up to the West, and abolished foot-binding for girls. And she did all this, Kitty, even though she technically had no power at all because she was a woman.”